Kid Icarus: Uprising

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Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus Uprising Logo.jpg
Studio
Publisher
  • JapanJapan, , NintendoEuropean UnionEuropean UnionUnited StatesUnited States
  • Senior Developer
  • Shinya Takahashi (Senior Producer)
  • Yoshihiro Matsushima (producer)
  • Masahiro Sakurai (Director)
  • Motio Sakuraba , Yūzō Koshiro , Masafumi Takada , Noriyuki Iwadare , Yasunori Mitsuda , Takahiro Nishi (composers)
  • Erstveröffent-
    lichung
  • JapanJapan March 22, 2012
  • European UnionEuropean Union March 23, 2012
  • United StatesUnited States March 23, 2012
  • AustraliaAustralia March 29, 2012
  • platform Nintendo 3DS
    genre Third-person shooter , action game
    Game mode Single player , multiplayer (local, online)
    control Circle Pad + Touchscreen ; Circle Pad Pro, stand
    medium module
    language Audio: Japanese, English
    Subtitles: Multilingual
    Age rating
    USK released from 12
    PEGI recommended for ages 12+
    information 3D effect is supported

    Kid Icarus: Uprising ( Japanese 新 ・ 光 神話 パ ル テ ナ の 鏡 , Shin Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami , Eng . "The new light myth : Palutena's mirror") is a computer game of the genres action game and third-person shooter . Nintendo released it worldwide in March 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console . The player takes on the role of the angel Pit, who fights with the goddess of light, Palutena, against the underworld goddess Medusa.

    Kid Icarus: Uprising was developed by Project Sora in collaboration with Nintendo under Masahiro Sakurai as director. The conception began in summer 2008, the actual development did not begin until the beginning of 2009. After the game was announced in 2010, Nintendo released it two years later.

    Kid Icarus: Uprising is the third part of the Kid Icarus series, which has existed since 1986, and the first new series offshoot in 19 years. Critics rated the game mostly positive, but criticized the controls. As of March 31, 2013, approximately 1.2 million copies had been sold worldwide.

    action

    Kid Icarus: Uprising is set in a fictional world that takes up elements of Greek mythology . The events of the game take place 25 years after those of the first Kid Icarus . The plot is mainly told through dialogues during the actual course of the game between Pit, Palutena and sometimes the respective boss opponents. Cutscenes are rarely found. In the dialogues, the so-called fourth wall is often overcome and references are made to Nintendo series such as Super Smash Bros. or Nintendogs and, for example, to Wikipedia .

    Pit, the protagonist of Kid Icarus: Uprising , is an angel and cannot fly himself. A statue of Icarus is shown, from whose myth the game is inspired.

    The game is about the fight of the goddess of light, Palutena, against the evil Medusa. Later on, other gods and powers join the fight. The protagonist is Pit, an angel who cannot fly himself. By allowing Palutena to fly, his wings can keep him in the air for five minutes. As indicated in the title of the game, this theme comes from the myth of Icarus .

    The game begins with Medusa rising again years after her destruction and starting her reign of power all over again. Palutena begins the fight with the Pit, the leader of her bodyguard. While Pit fights against Medusa's commander Gaol, he is joined by Magnus, the strongest of all human warriors. Pit then defeats the goddess of misery Pandora. She is an important commander because she can reproduce underworld soldiers using a special mirror. When Pit destroys the mirror, it creates its exact counterpart, the Dark Pit.

    Neither Palutena nor Medusa can control the Dark Pit. Meanwhile, Pit defeats the god of death Thanatos. From him he and Palutena receive the key to the underworld, where Medusa is. Before the final fight, Pit equips himself with the three sacred treasures that he has already used in previous adventures. He actually succeeds in destroying Medusa. Immediately afterwards, Hades appears unexpectedly . He introduces himself as the true lord of the underworld and claims to have been responsible for Medusa's resurrection.

    Hades' plan is to wipe out humanity. Despite Pits and Palutena's counter-attempts, a great war breaks out among the people thanks to Hades. Meanwhile, the goddess of nature, Viridi, intervenes. She too wants to destroy humanity. Therefore, Viridi is initially Palutena's top priority. On their behalf, Pit destroys a bomb depot and defeats Arlonso, a Viridis commander. Meanwhile, Hades and Viridi's armies are fighting each other.

    Shortly thereafter, a huge space fleet appears with mysterious beings that begin to exploit the earth. Hades, Viridis and Palutena's armies fight against this threat together, and the self-proclaimed sun god Pyrion also provides support. Pit manages to destroy the generator of the Aurum fleet and starts the attack on the Aurum brain, which controls all units. With united forces, the alien threat can be eliminated.

    When Pit comes to, he realizes that three years have passed and his soul is in a ring. Magnus comes across the ring and puts it on his finger, whereupon Pit's soul settles in Magnus' body. According to Magnus, after defeating the Aurum, Palutena attacked humanity. Pit's body was attacked by something during this time and also attacked people. When Pit finally regains control of his own body, Viridi decides to help him. According to her, while fighting Arlonso three years ago, Pit accidentally freed the Chaos King, a powerful creature that controls the souls of its victims. He attacked Palutena and thus attacked humanity and also controlled Pit's body.

    Pit invades Palutena's temple with Viridi's help and frees the goddess from the control of the Chaos King and defeats him. Pit suffers severe burns and is seriously injured. While the Dark Pit brings the angel to a sanctuary, Hades reveals his true plan. The soldiers of his underworld army consisted of souls of people killed in battle or of divine army warriors. So his army becomes infinitely large through the wars between humans and gods.

    In order to break this vicious circle, the now healed Pit resolves to destroy Hades. In return he receives the great sacred treasure, an immeasurably powerful weapon. With this the angel can take on Hades, Medusa also appears during the fight and rebels against her master. Eventually, Pit and Palutena kill Hades in one final blow.

    Game description

    control

    3DS on stand (left), stand without 3DS (right)
    3DS with Circle Pad Pro

    In Kid Icarus: Uprising, the player takes on the role of the protagonist Pit, who is controlled by movements of the sliding pad. The left shoulder button is used to shoot or attack. In some game phases, the camera can be controlled using the touchscreen, which is also used for aiming. Since the 3DS is held in just one hand in this standard configuration, Nintendo brought out a plastic stand with the game. The 3DS is placed on this, which should ensure better ergonomics . The game is also compatible with the Circle Pad Pro . This periphery complements the 3DS with two shoulder buttons and a second sliding pad on the right side and is only used in left-handed mode.

    Gameplay

    Kid Icarus: Uprising is a third-person shooter that is linearly divided into chapters. The majority of the chapters begin with a dogfight section that normally lasts a maximum of five minutes. This is followed by a longer ground fight part and then a boss fight. In aerial combat, Pit is directed by Palutena and has to aim, shoot and dodge. These sections are strictly linear and are similar to rail shooters , as the player has no control over the direction of his flight through the air.

    There is more freedom in ground combat. Here Pit can move freely and the camera can be controlled. The path is predetermined, but Pit can walk around any way within the level limits and thus discover secret passages. When Pit has reached the goal, a fight against a strong boss opponent follows, after which the chapter is completed.

    There is no overworld between the chapters. Instead, the player can start other modes in a menu, make settings, select weapons or replay chapters that have already been completed.

    Combat system and miscellaneous

    The heart of the game principle are fights that the character fights with the weapon that is equipped. There are nine weapon categories with many individual weapons, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Two copies of the same weapon can have different properties. A distinction is made between close combat and ranged attacks. Some weapons are more suitable for close combat, others are better used as firearms. There are several types of shots in the game, each with different effects. Attacks can also be charged, which further intensifies them.

    In combat, Pit can be supported by effects and items. Each weapon has special modifiers. These can, for example, increase the running speed, charge shots faster or cause additional damage. In the course of the game, the player also receives items that he can use to a limited extent. The effects of the individual items are far-reaching; a distinction is made between offensive and defensive ones.

    Hearts, which Pit receives by defeating opponents, serve as currency in the game. So the player can exchange stronger weapons for hearts. Even in the normal course of the game you get numerous weapons. Those not required can be exchanged for hearts. Furthermore, two weapons can fuse into a single, stronger one.

    Before each chapter, the player can set the level of difficulty on a 90-digit scale. To play on a higher or lower difficulty, hearts must be paid; The potential rewards are correspondingly higher or lower.

    Multiplayer and online modes

    Kid Icarus: Uprising has both local and online multiplayer . The latter is made possible by the Nintendo Network . In local multiplayer mode, up to six players can play against each other via a wireless connection, each player requiring a 3DS system with the Uprising mode plugged in . In online mode, too, there are six players fighting. Free places are filled by CPU characters in both modes.

    There are two game types available for the multiplayer mode, both of which are based on ground combat. The first, Hell versus Finster , is a fight between two teams of three. Each time a fighter is lost, the respective group bar decreases. As soon as this drops to zero, a player on the respective team becomes an angel and has stronger skills. The team that defeats the opposing angel first wins.

    In the second multiplayer mode, everyone against everyone , the six players are on their own and fight against each other until a set period of time expires. It is a so-called deathmatch mode . The player with the best relation between defeated opponents and his own screen deaths wins.

    development

    Production details

    Kid Icarus: Uprising was produced by the development studio Project Sora, which was founded especially for this project . Director Masahiro Sakurai was the head of the development team . Nintendo's Nintendo Software Planning & Development (SPD) department cooperated on production. Producer Yoshihiro Matsushima and General Producer Shinya Takahashi are employees of this department. Sakurai started designing the game in July 2008. The production process started in early 2009 and lasted until early 2012. Support was provided by the Toylogic developer studios. Inc and others. The credits count almost 150 participants.

    Conception

    In July 2008, Nintendo President Iwata asked Sakurai for a game for the 3DS.

    Masahiro Sakurai was originally an employee of the Nintendo studio HAL Laboratory . In 2003 he left the studio and later founded the agency Sora Ltd. in order to be able to work as a freelancer. The origins of Kid Icarus: Uprising can be traced back to July 2008. It was then that Sakurai learned from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata that Nintendo was working on a new, high-performance handheld console. Iwata asked him to be one of the first developers outside of Nintendo to produce a game for the console.

    Sakurai determined the genre of his project, it should be a shooter. He was not very familiar with this genre and it was not very popular in Japan, but it seemed appropriate due to the 3D effects of the console. In the initial planning he assumed a rail shooter . The game character should approach an opponent's settlement in an aerial battle and fight a boss on the ground. This concept was supplemented by floor passages. After several discussions with Nintendo, Sakurai's concept of the air and ground shooter hybrid was formally adopted in October 2008.

    At that time it was still planned that the game should belong to a new franchise. After talking to Iwata, Sakurai considered using the Star Fox shooter series as a basis instead . Since he found Star Fox inflexible, he chose Kid Icarus as the franchise instead . The reason was that the main character Pit was more suitable as a character and was still quite well known in the western market. This made the project the first Kid Icarus game since 1992.

    Project Sora

    Sakurai didn't have its own development studio at the time. Sora Ltd. was an agency with only two employees, for previous projects a development team was created from persons temporarily contractually bound to Nintendo. So a studio had to be set up for Sakurai before the production phase could begin.

    On January 22nd, 2009, Sora and Nintendo founded the Studio Project Sora in Tokyo. It started with a capital of around 200 million yen (the equivalent of around 2 million euros). 72% of this was provided by Nintendo, with Sora and other companies making up the rest. The founding of the studio was announced in February 2009. At that time, the studio was looking for new employees on its website. The project to be developed was described as a product aimed at frequent gamers, the development of which should be completed in 2011.

    Project Sora was closed again on June 30, 2012.

    Production process

    At the beginning of the work on Kid Icarus: Uprising no developer tools for the 3DS were available. The console was still under development, which delayed the Uprising creation process .

    Even before Project Sora was founded, Sakurai began development with a small number of employees. They worked in a small building in Tokyo that they rented in November 2008. Since the 3DS was still in development at the time, the team was not yet able to use any developer tools. Therefore, the game was programmed for the PC at the beginning, and it was also developed for a short time on the Wii console. It was at this time that he wrote the plot of the game. He then hired illustrators to create backgrounds and characters.

    The small team designed prototypical aerial and ground combat videos that were used to illustrate the current status to new project members. It took some time for the game to transfer to the 3DS at optimal performance, which contributed to the long development time of the game.

    Officially, the production of Kid Icarus: Uprising did not begin until March 2009. Around August 2010, possible multiplayer modes were tested, and a good year later the team tested a possible online mode. From mid-2011 the developers mainly dealt with the local multiplayer mode. This was mandatory for Sakurai in order to gain experience with the console in order to be able to develop a new offshoot of the Super Smash Bros. series for them.

    Some ideas had to be discarded due to time constraints, including a new game mode and three additional chapters. During development, attempts were made to make the controls easier, for example by automatically locking the camera in place on opponents. This, too, was ultimately discarded in favor of full control over the camera. Since the 3DS system was still under development, changes to the hardware required adjustments to the game. This further delayed production.

    Also due to a lack of time, no further support for the Circle Pad Pro could be built in, because the team only found out about this peripheral during the official unveiling. The idea for the 3DS stand was suggested to Nintendo even before the game was actually developed. After several inquiries, Nintendo finally designed such a stand.

    On January 20, 2012, Sakurai announced on Twitter that the game had reached gold status . This marked the end of production, the game was now in production.

    music

    The soundtrack of Kid Icarus: Uprising consists of 72 pieces. Most of the music was played by a 130-piece orchestra plus a choir of eleven singers. Other pieces are electronic music by a group of seven musicians. There are also arrangements or 1: 1 adaptations of the music from the first Kid Icarus . These are based on the original music composed by Hirokazu Tanaka .

    The music was created by six well-known video game composers who all contributed to Super Smash Bros. Brawl . They are Motoi Sakuraba , Yūzō Koshiro , Masafumi Takada , Noriyuki Iwadare , Yasunori Mitsuda and Takahiro Nishi. For the orchestration of music Natsumi Kameoka and Mitsuda were responsible. Early music suggestions from the composers were rejected.

    Japanese members of Club Nintendo were able to purchase a soundtrack CD for the game. The CD contains a selection of 25 pieces of music from the game with a running time of 72 minutes. It was released on March 22, 2012 under the title Shin Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami: Music Selection ( 新 ・ 光 神話 パ ル テ ナ の 鏡 ミ ミ ュ ー ジ ッ ク セ レ ク シ ョ ン ). On August 21, 2012, the complete soundtrack was finally released in Japan under the title Shin Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami: Original Soundtrack ( 新 ・ 光 神話 パ ル テ ナ の 鏡 オ リ リ ジ ナ ル ・ サ ウ ン ド ト ラ ッ ク ). It contains 71 pieces on three CDs with a total running time of a good three and a half hours.

    Characters and voice actors

    The following table is an overview of the characters in the game and their voice actors . The script for the Japanese version was written by the director Sakurai.

    Ali Hillis gave Palutena her voice in the English version.
    character Japanese speaker English speaker role
    Pit Minami Takayama Antony Del Rio Engel, leader of Palutena's bodyguard, protagonist of the game and player character
    Palutena Aya Hisakawa Ali Hillis Goddess of light
    Dark pit Minami Takayama Antony Del Rio Copy of Pit, reflecting his dark soul
    Viridi Makiko Omoto Hynden Walch Goddess of nature
    Magnus Kenji Nomura Fred Tatasciore Strongest human fighter
    Gaol Junko Minagawa Kari Wahlgren Lord of Darkness, Commander Medusas
    Hidra Masaya Takatsuka Danny Mann Three-headed flying serpent, Commander Medusas
    Thanatos Eiji Itō Danny Mann God of death and representative of Medusa
    Pandora Mariko Suzuki Nika Futterman Goddess of misery, Commander Medusa
    Alonso Yasuhiko Tokuyama Troy Baker Ruler of the Moon Fortress, Servant of Viridis
    Fosfora Yuka Komatsu Kari Wahlgren Leader of Viridi's forces
    Pyrion Tetsu Inada Troy Baker Self-proclaimed sun god
    Poseidon Ryūzaburō Atomo Fred Tatasciore God of the seas
    Charioteer Hōchū Ōtsuka Alan Oppenheimer Owner of the divine chariot
    Dyntos Kōji Yada Alan Oppenheimer Divine craftsman and creator of the three sacred treasures
    Medusa Naomi Shindo Cree Summer Goddess of darkness
    Hades Hōchū Ōtsuka S. Scott Bullock True lord of the underworld
    1. In the first trailer dubbed by Troy Lund.

    Announcements and presentations

    Original Kid Icarus logo
    : Uprising at E3 2011

    On June 15, 2010, Nintendo announced Kid Icarus: Uprising as the first 3DS game at the E3 game fair . The trailer shown started with the words Sorry to keep you waiting! ( I'm sorry you had to wait! ), An allusion to the almost 20-year wait for a new Kid Icarus .

    At the beginning of 2011, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé announced that Kid Icarus: Uprising would not appear at the market launch of the 3DS, but "after E3" in early June. At E3, he confirmed a 3v3 multiplayer mode, AR support and assured that the game would be released in 2011. In September 2011, Iwata announced that the game would have to be postponed to the first quarter of 2012 due to more development time. In December 2011 the final date was announced - Kid Icarus: Uprising will be released on March 23, 2012.

    At the end of December 2011, Nintendo presented the online mode of the game during the Nintendo Direct internet conference. The product was in the final test phases at the time.

    sales and marketing

    publication

    On March 22, 2012, Nintendo released Kid Icarus: Uprising in Japan. The following day, Friday, March 23, it was released in Europe and North America, distributed by Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America, respectively . The Australian continent received the game a week later. In addition to the module, the scope of delivery of the game includes a plastic stand and a starter pack consisting of six cards for the AR trading cards (see section Trading cards ).

    In North America, pre-orderers of the game received a bonus download code for 3D Classics: Kid Icarus for the 3DS.

    Short films

    To market Kid Icarus: Uprising , Nintendo commissioned three well-known Japanese studios to each create a short anime with 3D graphics for the game. The short films were published via the Nintendo video application of the 3DS. There are three of them:

    • Thanatos' Rise (Japanese: 空 飛 ぶ 木馬 Soratobu Mokuba ; Eng .: Thanatos Rising ) by Production IG : The three-part anime is about Pit's fight against Thanatos.
    • Medusa's Revenge (Japanese: メ デ ュ ー サ の 逆襲 Medyūsa no Gyakushū ; Eng .: Medusa's Revenge ) from Studio 4 ° C tells Medusa's actions before the action of the game.
    • Palutena's Dinner Strikes Back (Japanese: お い か け て / お い か け ら れ て Oikakete / Oikakerarete ; Eng .: Palutena's Revolting Dinner ) by Shaft : two-part animation in a happy style; The main character is Palutena, who accidentally breathes life into vegetables.

    Trading cards

    For Kid Icarus: Uprising there are several hundred different augmented reality trading cards (AR cards). The cards can be captured in-game with the 3DS's external cameras. The figures, weapons or surroundings shown are unlocked as trophies in the game. Two cards can fight against each other in a special game mode. Corresponding animations are displayed on the screens. The fight is determined by fixed values ​​such as strength points, speed or energy.

    The cards are distributed in various ways, for example via Club Nintendo. Nintendo of Europe entered into a collaboration with the Italian publishing company Panini , through which further packets of trading cards and a scrapbook are to be published.

    Sales figures

    In its first week in Japan, Kid Icarus: Uprising was sold over 130,000 times, according to market research company Media Create . With that it topped the charts . By early May, sales for Japan rose to 260,000. The market launch of the game was also successful in the USA. Nintendo spoke of about 135,000 sales in the first week. In April, the game dominated the handheld charts in North America with 83,000 copies sold. In Germany, the game started in fourth place on the weekly charts.

    As of December 2012, Kid Icarus: Uprising has sold 0.90 million times worldwide, according to estimates by VGChartz. 310,000 units have been sold in North America, 210,000 in Europe and Japan, 320,000 copies are said to have wandered over the shop counters.

    As of March 31, 2013, Nintendo announced that 1.18 million copies of the game had been shipped worldwide.

    reception

    Reviews

    Richard George, editor of the online portal IGN , considers Kid Icarus: Uprising to be a "great adventure". "Although not without some significant flaws," it proves that the 3DS has very good games for a portable console. The game principle is particularly suitable as a pastime in between. Allusions to other computer games in the dialogues and jokes that penetrate the fourth wall are probably the best moments of the game. Still, George found the constant dialogue during the actual game to be annoying at times. From a technical point of view, the reviewer rated the character models in the game as less impressive than in other 3DS games. The level design, which gives a “feeling of breathtaking speed”, belongs in terms of creativity to the best that is offered on the 3DS.

    “Kid Icarus Uprising is a fantastic game full of superb action, stunning graphics and art design, incredible music (truly some of Nintendo's best), humorous dialogue and solid gameplay. Despite that, it suffers from an equal number of problems, including some very frustrating and awkward controls, a fairly repetitive level structure, characters that talk too much and action that sometimes overwhelms the 3DS's relatively small screen. "

    “Kid Icarus: Uprising is a fantastic game full of great action, breathtaking graphics and artsy design, incredible music (truly some of Nintendo's best [music]), fun dialogue, and solid gameplay. That being said, it suffers from an equal number of issues, including very frustrating and awkward controls, a fairly repetitive level structure, characters talking too much, and action that sometimes overwhelms the 3DS's rather small screen. "

    - Richard George

    The video game magazine Game Informer emphasized in their game test that Kid Icarus: Uprising is a very good game with many motivating ideas. Editor Jeff Cork expressed the greatest point of criticism as the uncomfortable controls, which initially prevented him from enjoying the game. The included stand solves this problem for the most part and enables a pleasant game. In return, however, the portability is restricted. The control deficiencies are the main difficulty factor of the game and, according to Cork, hinder the otherwise very good game.

    The British computer game magazine Edge describes Uprising as a “generous” production with a plot reminiscent of God of War and “graphics that suggest Nintendo in a Disney mode”. Well-modeled characters and landscapes as well as an “unstoppable soundtrack” made the game look beautiful even in direct comparison with much more powerful platforms. It is astonishing that this can be done without problems on the 3DS. The fact that the game concept comes from Masahiro Sakurai is evident in the depth and accessibility of the game. Due to the numerous collectible weapons, the game looks like a hybrid of Star Fox , Zelda and Pokémon . On the other hand, the complicated control is criticized.

    JC Fletcher of the Joystiq website thinks Uprising is an excellent game. The complicated handling due to the hardware stands in the way of the experience.

    The German magazine N-Zone criticized the difficult entry into the game. In the first few hours of the game, the player is confused by the "confused controls and [the] unfamiliar gameplay". The control is most comfortable with the plastic stand. Nevertheless, editor Christoph Kraus comes to the conclusion: “ Kid Icarus: Uprising looks fantastic, is very well presented in terms of menu navigation, offers uncompromisingly good action, is a lot of fun even with five players and is sometimes reminiscent of the genre kings Lylat Wars and Sin & Punishment . "

    interpretation

    IGN interpreted the plot of the game as light-hearted, yet it includes end-time scenarios. This doesn't stop the characters from chatting jokingly. Joystiq stops Kid Icarus: Uprising not only for the rebirth of an old franchise, but also for the birth of a completely new series of games that is unique in Nintendo's repertoire. The reviewer recognized many elements typical of Sakurai in the game, including the various setting options, the menu design and the large number of unlockable extras.

    Eurogamer said: "With Kid Icarus: Uprising we also see how a developer is burdened with expanding the definition of a Nintendo game" (Original quote: "So too with Kid Icarus: Uprising we see a designer straining to broaden the definition of." a Nintendo game. "). The publication refers to Sakurai's career, which testifies to innovative and risky projects. A trademark of the director is to surround a good core concept with numerous other systems. This can also be seen in Uprising , which is not just a good game, but a great one.

    Rating mirror

    Kid Icarus: Uprising was rated positively in general, and occasionally it received mixed reviews. The Metacritic website has a Metascore, i. H. worldwide average rating, of 83%, based on 75 reviews. Another average ratings website, GameRankings, averaged the game at 84.64% from 50 ratings.

    Magazine / website Rating date comment
    Computer picture games 1.48 April 11, 2012 Decimal numbers between 1 and 6 as a rating
    Destructoid 5/10 March 19, 2012
    Edge 80% March 23, 2012
    Eurogamer 90% March 19, 2012
    Famitsu 40/40 March 13, 2012 Individual ratings by four editors; here: 10/10/10/10
    Game Informer 70% March 19, 2012
    GameSpot 8/10 March 23, 2012
    GameShark 42% March 21, 2012 Most negative criticism recorded by Metacritic.
    IGN Entertainment 85% March 23, 2012
    Joystiq 90% March 23, 2012
    Nintendo Online 9/10 March 22, 2012
    Nintendo Power 95% March 28, 2012
    N zone 83% March 21, 2012
    Official Nintendo Magazine 91% March 19, 2012
    The Escapist 80% April 12, 2012

    Awards

    IGN ranked Kid Icarus: Uprising as the ninth-best 3DS game in mid-2012. It is the game with the greatest replay value on the console. In IGN's 2012 Game of the Year Awards, the game was nominated for Best 3DS Graphics and Best Multiplayer Game on Console.

    In the context of the Kid Icarus franchise

    Kid Icarus: Uprising is the third part of the Kid Icarus series that has existed since 1986 . The second part, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters , was released in 1991 for the Game Boy. In terms of gameplay, Kid Icarus: Uprising has little in common with the previous offshoots. These have a 2D gameplay and offer a mixture of platforming , action adventure and shoot-'em-up elements. Kid Icarus: Uprising, on the other hand, is a 3D shooter. The transition of the Kid Icarus series into the third dimension was therefore perceived by the specialist press as a major deviation from the familiar game concept.

    Still, Kid Icarus: Uprising retains some elements from the previous games. An example is the mood of the old games. Sakurai thought the first offshoot Kid Icarus was silly or light-hearted compared to the more serious games of the time . The game is based on Greek mythology, but contains objects such as credit cards that do not belong in such a universe. Because Sakurai thought this mood was central within the series, he didn't want the mood of the new offshoot to appear too serious either.

    Some game elements of Kid Icarus: Uprising still come from the predecessors. To name are, for example, the enemy species eggplant or allusions to the Nintendo series Metroid . The last level of the first part is different from the rest of the game in the style of a rail shooter and therefore has some similarities to the 3DS offshoot. In addition, the game contains numerous allusions to the original: 8-bit images of the boss opponents are shown, some sound effects have been adopted and the plot also contains allusions to the large time gap between the games.

    Sakurai considers Uprising to be a completely independent game, despite the many references to Kid Icarus . After the game came out, he announced that he was not planning a sequel to Kid Icarus: Uprising . But he hopes that another developer could develop another part of the series.

    Web links

    Remarks

    1. a b The participating studios apart from Project Sora and Nintendo SPD (production and cooperation) were the following: Toylogic, Opus Studio, Mox, Miracle Arts, Stargeon, Sarugakusho
    2. The file size of Kid Icarus: Uprising is 1.61 gigabytes; see. Nintendo-Gamer.net ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nintendo-gamer.net
    3. Sakurai had previously contributed creatively to the series' main character, Pit. For Super Smash Bros. Brawl , he redesigned Pits appearance and character. See 1up.com ( memento from January 20, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
    4. According to several rumors, the German studio Factor 5 was working on a prototypical Kid Icarus concept for the Wii in 2007 . (cf. unseen64.net ) Speculations about a successor were fueled by an unclear comment from Shigeru Miyamoto in July 2008. (cf. IGN.com )
    5. Sakurai mentioned in an interview that Kid Icarus: Uprising was the first 3DS project - 1up.com ( memento from July 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ): It's the first 3DS project ever launched .
    6. Although it was asserted several times that Project Sora should develop the fourth Super Smash Bros. part for 3DS and Wii U, the studio was closed in mid-2012 and Namco Bandai was commissioned with the development.
    7. An assignment of the pieces of music to composer, arranger and orchestrator can be found at vgmdb.net . The numbers refer to the order of the pieces in the official soundtrack, cf. vgmdb.net .

    Individual evidence

    1. a b c d e f Kid Icarus Uprising. In: Kyoto-Report.wikidot.com. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
    2. a b c d e Kid Icarus: Uprising Release Information. In: GameFAQs.com. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
    3. nintendo.de
    4. a b Kevin Gifford: Masahiro Sakurai Discusses Kid Icarus: Uprising's Origins: Why you should always accept Satoru Iwata's dinner invitations. (No longer available online.) In: 1up.com. June 30, 2010, archived from the original on July 18, 2012 ; accessed on September 30, 2012 (English).
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    This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 7, 2013 .